Tuesday, July 23, 2013

More ICE SVU Fail

The continuing saga of diploma mills for alien students continues, with no action by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Special Victims Unit (ICE SVU). The University of Northern Virginia (UNV) was ordered shut down, not by ICE SVU, but by the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV).

The University of Northern Virginia (UNVA) — a very marginal institution that relied heavily on foreign students, notably those from India, and that was raided two years ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — was closed Wednesday, July 17, by the State of Virginia, not by ICE.

As is all too often the case, an institution outside the immigration business has stepped in and done the work that should have been done by the Department of Homeland Security, as the Securities and Exchange Commission did recently in a $145 million immigrant investor (EB-5) fraud case I described in an earlier blog.

The State Council for Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV) issued a cease and desist order to UNVA yesterday on non-immigration-related grounds; it did so because, despite years of warnings, the institution could not secure accreditation from a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accreditation agency. Kirsten Nelson, a press officer for SCHEV, confirmed the action over the phone with me that afternoon.

The problem continues, as other diploma mills remain open, such as Herguan University, despite indictment of its owner. More importantly, their students remain, mostly illegally, as these universities cannot attract students capable of doing university level work as these institutions have no academic standards, existing to sell legal status and employment authorization to the academic bottom of the barrel.

It is a certain lesson John Boehner who appears to think that he can trust Barack Hussein Obama to enforce any amnesty bill with "the toughest enforcement provisions" in history. If ICE SVU refuses to close openly fraudulent diploma mills, do you think he will build a fence?